OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the symbolic frame
2. Apply the symbolic frame to your personal case situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

The organization that I will be sharing about is the Bluegrass Army Depot in Richmond, KY.
This organization as a whole is a storage depot for both conventional and chemical weapons.
My role in this was an explosives inspector and the struggle involved to destroy the chemical
weapons in the time frame given.

2) Describe how the symbols of the organization influenced the situation.

I think the symbol within my organization was very similar to what the military uses as
symbols but also quite different. The organization as a whole tried to emulate the
depecition that we will get the mission done no matter what issues we face, while also
taking a direct approach to overall safety. The problem is, these concepts often
overlapped and created a lot of issues during the process.

I do think we held strong to the symbol of making sure we completed the mission while
also being safe but at times this created a lot of frustration and turmoil in regards to how
members viewed safety and the importance of it from upper management. I think this is
common in a lot of organizations that require safety while also trying to complete a task
in a certain time frame.

3) Recommend how you would use organizational symbols for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

I think I would have taken the approach of being more team oriented. Although we were
close in our teams and did all of our training together, there was no team building
exercises that were done throughout the entire time that I worked there. When it came to
safety we had each others backs but didn’t feel like the company as a whole did.

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 I think having team building and camaraderie is essential for creating a culture and
overall symbol of what you want your organization to be. It also creates trust amongst
members and makes you feel safer when you get into situations that might be dangerous
or where trust is required in someone other than yourself.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.

For me personally, I would have tried to make sure that we were together as a team
regardless of what the organization as a whole was doing. I was not in a position to make
that large of an impacted but I could have helped my team be safer and more efficient by
pushing things such as team building exercises.

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 Reference or References
(Choose appropriate Title if Applicable and Delete the Rest)